Burglars plumb the depths in targeting Miami-Dade business
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE - The owner of a well-known Miami-Dade plumbing business is appealing for the public's help after he says surveillance tape captured burglars stealing $100,000 worth of equipment from his operation, reports CBS Miami.
"It's horrible... Last year they took a whole vehicle. It's tough on my insurance. It is not a good feeling," Kenny Kotalik, who has owned Miami Shores Plumbing for the past 30 years, told the station..
"It's the sewer equipment, the hand tools, the power tools and copper. They even took a sewer camera and they knew exactly what it was worth to pawn for it or take it to the flea market. They were very well educated on what they wanted," he continued.
"They hit electrical trucks and a/c trucks," Ktoalik said. "They knew what they were looking for. They were brazen. It's unbelievable the risks they were taking and what they will do. And they had bad habits."
The surveillance tape released by Kotalik shows what he believes are two young men rifling through four trucks. He said they used a ladder to scale a fence and then cross over barbed wire to get to his business.
The surveillance tape shows the suspected burglars arriving at 1:03 a.m. last Friday, April 25, and Kotalik said they were at the business for at least an hour.
"These trucks take $20,000 to $30,000 just to stock with equipment," he said. "This is just terrible how some of them were broken into like this. They used a crow bar on one of my trucks but they were not able to get inside of it so they moved on to other trucks in the lot."
"This is the first time in my 30 years here that my business has been burglarized," he told CBS Miami. "I have had trucks stolen and vandalized but never anything like this."
Kotalik said Miami-Dade Police have dusted his burglarized vehicles for fingerprints. It is unclear if police have uncovered any leads in the case.
Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).